Leslie Strange and the kidnapping of Rose Weasley
by renagirl9
Summary: Rose Weasley is kidnapped right before her sixth year at Hogwarts. Why? She doesn't know. But she finds herself becoming friends with the woman who kidnapped her.


"Leslie?" Rose calls a question in her voice. The tall woman, around the age of her parents, with dark black hair past her waist, looks up. "Why did you kidnap me? I probably should have asked this before, since you've kept me here for about a week now."

Leslie just stares at Rose. Rose starts getting nervous.

"Is it for ransom? Because my parents will pay any price."

"No."

"Then what? Do you have some political agenda or something?"

"Nope."

"Why did you then?"

"Revenge." Leslie replies and then she is gone.

Rose sighs and flops onto the bed in the room Leslie has provided for her. It's been a week since Leslie Strange took her from Diagon Alley and no one has even tried to rescue her yet. They must be trying, of course, because she is after all a Weasley, related to Harry Potter and all. So she assumes that Leslie must have this place hidden really well.

Leslie hasn't done anything to her, except for the whole kidnapping thing. She's given Rose free access to the entire abandoned castle that rather reminds Rose of Hogwarts. This causes her to realize that today's September 1 and that she should be on the Hogwarts Express right now. She should be in a locked compartment reuniting with her secret boyfriend Scorpius Malfoy. She shouldn't be here. She breaks down into tears.

She figures that her sobs must have been rather loud because pretty soon, Rose hears footsteps and feels a hand stroking her head reassuringly. Rose is a little surprised to see that it is Leslie but not really, because Leslie seems to be really nice with a few issues.

"I am sorry." Leslie mutters and Rose isn't sure whether Leslie meant for her to hear it or not.

"Did my family do something horrid to yours?" Rose asks after the woman is silent for a while. It seems to be the only explanation.

"Yes. They did." Leslie stares past Rose, deep in thought.

"They don't like me much either."

This seems to shock Leslie out of her silence. "Why's that?"

"I'm different than them, you know. I'm a Ravenclaw, I hate brooms and Quidditch, and I don't hate the people they hate."

"I find it hard to believe that a Weasley would ever not hate a Malfoy. That feud goes back to the Founder's time, possibly before."

"And yet I am dating Scorpius Malfoy."

Leslie looks shocked for a moment and then raises her eyebrows. "Perhaps I picked the wrong one. Oh well, too late now." Once again, Leslie vanishes from the room. Rose sighs and tries to reconcile with the fact that she may never leave here.

Rose has been here for two months and still she has seen no evidence of a rescue attempt. This annoys her and sometimes she feels like bursting into tears but most of the time she forgets that she's not here of her own free will. Leslie is actually a wonderful person and Rose finds herself forming a friendship with her kidnapper.

She knows that that is probably messed up and that she should hate Leslie for kidnapping her. She does hate Leslie occasionally but it never lasts. The woman is just so nice. Rose has just concluded that there is something wrong with Leslie mentally because she doesn't see any other reason for why Leslie kidnapped her.

Leslie still hasn't told her the real reason why she wants revenge on Rose's family. She assumes it hurts the woman to think about it.

Right now, they are playing exploding snap. Leslie is winning and in a good mood, so Rose figures it's safe to ask. Leslie never goes crazy on her, but she does get moody and disappears for a while. And the castle is lonely.

"When are you going to let me leave?"

Leslie just shakes her head, frowning as the cards explode.

"You're never going to let me go, are you?" Rose says, her voice taking on a panicky quality.

Leslie nods slowly.

"Why?"

"I just can't. You'll turn me in."

"No, I won't. I like you."

"They'll make you." Leslie says this all matter-of-factly as if it is set in stone.

"I won't tell. I promise."

"I can't risk that. Sorry." Leslie does look apologetic. "I do regret taking you. I like you despite you being a Weasley. I didn't expect that."

"Then why don't you let me go?"

"I can't risk them finding out who I am…" Leslie trails off and her expression changes from cool to panicky. She stands up from the table and is gone in the next instant.

Rose looks out the window and sighs.

She's nearly been here three months now. Tomorrow is Christmas and Rose nearly breaks down into tears every time she thinks of home. She has all but given up on anyone rescuing her and she has resigned herself to her fate. She'll probably be in this castle for the rest of her life, alone except for Leslie.

At least Leslie is nice. It could be a lot worse. Her kidnapper could have been a torturer, a rapist, or a murderer. Leslie just has a few mental issues.

Rose doesn't know her real identity but she figures that Leslie must have been on the wrong side of the War. Perhaps her parents were death eaters. That would explain why no one has bothered helping Leslie with her mental problems and pureblood inbreeding could explain the mental problems in the first place.

But Rose can't seem to focus on why she likes Leslie, not tonight. If she's not thinking about her family, about Christmas Dinner at the Burrow, then she's dreaming about Scorpius and about how they'd promised to reveal they're relationship when they got back from the break. They'd decided on that date because they would both be of age by then and they'd be back at Hogwarts and well out of reach of their parent's fury.

Rose doesn't doubt for a minute that if she asked Leslie to bring Scorpius here, that Leslie wouldn't do it. Kidnapping Scorpius would be easy; the Malfoys lost all their power long ago. But Rose can't doom Scorpius to this trapped life. He'd resent her for it.

Leslie walks into the room humming a Christmas tune. She sits down next to Rose and beams at her.

"Why so glum Rosie?"

"Other than the obvious?" Rose raises an eyebrow. Leslie nods. She takes everything so literally. "I miss Scorpius."

Leslie nods like she understands. "Well, I think you'll be happy to hear what I'm about to tell you."

"What's that?"

"I'm going to let you write a letter!"

Rose gapes at her. She never thought that Leslie would let her have contact with the outside world again.

"This is my Christmas present to you." Leslie continues, obviously delighted that she managed to shock Rose. "You can only write it to one person and it cannot be your family, I'm afraid. I'll have to read it to be sure it's okay to send, of course. And I'll even let you get a reply!" Leslie squeals, ecstatic to have thought of such a good plan.

"Thank you!" Rose throws her arms around Leslie, knowing that if anyone else had kidnapped her, she would never even get this much.

"Here's a quill and some parchment. And ink. I brought quite a lot because I thought you'd probably want to write a lot. Now don't write any descriptions about me or anything personal. Or any descriptions about where you are. Okay?"

Rose nods, too excited to speak.

"I'll leave you alone. Come find me when you're done."

Rose dips the quill in the ink and begins to write.

_Dear Scorpius,_

_I love you. I miss you. So much._

_Yes, it's really me. I can prove it too. Do you remember that night when you told me about your irrational fear of rats and said I was the only one you ever told? Well I remember. You're probably worried sick about me. But I'm fine. I probably have the nicest kidnapper in the history of ever. She's really nice and I'm friends with her, twisted as that may be. _

_She says she regrets taking me because she really likes me, but she's too scared to let me go. I'd never turn her in. You may say I'm crazy but that's the truth, honey. She has some issues but don't we all?_

_I guess you were right about me being the luckiest unlucky person you've ever heard of. I know you said it because of me falling for the wrong person who is completely right for me a.k.a. you. It applies here as well doesn't it?_

The letter went on for ten more pages. Rose asked about everything she could think of and filled one entire page with practically nothing but I-love-yous.

Leslie okayed the letter. Rose could barely sleep that night with anticipation. Tomorrow she would hear from Scorpius, for the first time since the end of fifth year.

Rose is still amazed that she is outside of that castle. It's a few days into the new year and she is not in that castle. She is not kidnapped anymore. She is free.

She can hardly believe it.

She's not sure how she feels about it either.

She's glad she's free. Glad she can see her family (although every time she sees her parents her dad is shaking with anger and her mother looks disappointed in her) and glad she can see Scorpius.

But she's not sure how she feels about Leslie being locked up in Azkaban. Rose doesn't think Leslie will get the help she needs there and she wants Leslie to be helped. At least the dementors are no longer there because they would really push the woman off the deep end.

And she's not sure what she should say at Leslie's trial. Because every one thinks that she'll speak out against her kidnapper. But Rose thinks she'll probably emphasize how nice Leslie was to her and how Leslie regretted it from the start. She doubts anyone will listen to her though.

Rose definitely isn't sure how she feels about being in St. Mungo's. She knows she made the right choice by jumping in front of Leslie to protect her from the curse Ron cast. She's abosolutly certain that they wouldn't have rushed _Leslie_ to emergency care like they did her.

"Hey, Rose." Scorpius strolls into her hospital room, relief on his face like it always is every time he sees her.

That's another thing Rose isn't sure about. She still loves Scorpius, completely. But in order for everyone to rescue her, Scorpius had to show Ron her letter. The _whole_ letter.

If it hadn't been the only way to rescue Rose, Ron probably would have killed him on the spot.

And when she flat out refused to break up with Scorpius, she swears Ron would have murdered her if she had been anywhere more private than St. Mungo's.

She's fairly sure that her parents are keeping the whole Scorpius thing quiet because none of her cousins are acting weird. Neither is her brother.

"Is it time for the trial?" Rose asks half of her wanting to get this over with and half of her wanting to hide.

"Yeah. Are you ready?" Scorpius knows how hard this is for her because he's the only one who has even tried to understand that she was friends with Leslie.

She smiles weakly. "I guess I have to be, don't I?"

Rose winces as she is walked over to the witness stand in the courtroom. It still hurts a little to walk.

She wonders what all the people assembled her, all the reporters, all the Wizamgot members will think when she tells them what happened. She doubts they'll get what they expected.

"Rose Weasley, will you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?"

"I do." Rose feels the truth spell settle on her and she knows she couldn't lie to save her life.

"Can you identify the woman that sits before you?"

"Yes." Rose nods and she almost cries at the sight of a shivering Leslie in tattered clothing in front of her.

"What did she tell you her name was?"

"Leslie Strange." Rose knew that Leslie had probably lied about her surname at the least and she wonders if she'll finally find out her true identity.

"Were you aware that your kidnapper was in fact Leslie LeStrange, daughter of the infamous Death Eater, Bellatrix LeStrange?"

"No, but I had expected something like that."

"Please describe the conditions you were kept in while you were under Miss LeStrange's control."

Rose breathes deeply, knowing that this next part will shock a lot of people. "Leslie was wonderful to me. I was allowed to go anywhere I wanted in the castle, I always had good food, clothes, books to read. We would play exploding snap and chess and we'd talk for hours. She became my friend."

The Wizamgot was obviously surprised by this. "You weren't mistreated in any way?"

"No, not at all."

"But she wouldn't let you leave."

"That is correct, yes."

"Why do you think Miss LeStrange kidnapped you?"

"Lesile's mother was killed by my grandmother Molly, I'm sure you know. She wanted revenge. Leslie, you see, isn't quite sane. She has some mental issues caused by inbreeding that could probably have been solved if anyone had cared enough to send her to a therapist."

"Why did she treat you so well if she wanted revenge?"

"Leslie didn't expect to like me so much. She regretted it instantly but she thought it was too late. She was afraid."

"Of what?"

"This, of course. Wouldn't you be?" Rose lets her eyes sweep over the room.

"How did you manage to send a letter to one Scorpius Malfoy?"

Murmurs came from the reporters as they heard that.

"Leslie let me. It was my Christmas present."

The Wizamgot was surprised yet again. "And when the Aurors followed the traking spell placed on the reply letter and attacked the castle, why did you jump in front of Miss LeStrange to protect her from a curse?"

"Because Leslie is my friend and that curse could have killed her without immeadiate medical attention. I knew I would get it. I doubted she would. It makes perfect sense."

"And what do you think should be done about Miss. LeStrange?"

"I suppose you have to lock her up don't you?" Rose smirks at the Wizamgot. "You can't let anyone get away with kidnapping a Weasley, can you? But Leslie is a good person and she isn't going to get the help she needs in Azkaban. You can't sentence her for life, not without a wish by me, because I'm of age now. And if you don't want her worse when she comes out than when she goes in, you will get her some help."

"Hey," Leslie smiles weakly from behind the bars of her cell in Azkaban. It has been nine years since Leslie kidnapped her and Rose still visits her friend every few months. "I got the pictures. I'm glad you finally made it through a pregnancy. And I'm very touched."

"It's nothing."

"You named your daughter after me. Your old kidnapper."

"You're my friend too." Rose reminds her of this every time. "The entire world thinks I'm crazy."

"Like that's news." Leslie snorts.

"Technically you're the crazy one."

"Yes, but I'm getting help thanks to your foundation. You don't have nice therapists to help you with your issues."

"I don't have issues."

"Your denial of issues is an issue. Your friendship with me is another issue, some would say." Leslie says this jokingly but her eyes are serious. "Have your parents talked to you yet?"

"No and I don't care if they do." Rose says though even she knows she's lying. "What kind of people abandon their daughter when they just get her back?"

"I guess people like your parents."

"No kidding. But Hugo left a note saying he wants to meet his niece." Rose's eyes fill with hope.

"That's good."

"Yeah."

There's silence for a few moments but it's a comfortable silence, Rose thinks. She chooses to break it when she sees that the time allotted for her to visit is nearly over.

"I would have brought little Leslie here but they won't let me."

"Makes sense." Leslie nods. "I'll guess I'll just have to wait to see my namesake when I get released in eleven year just like everyone else."

Before Rose could reply, guards appeared to escort her from the prison.


End file.
